Most Victims Are Blacks and Muslims: How Did Racism Spread in Britain's Prisons?

Despite decades of activism from the family of victims and their supporters, the deaths of racialized people in prison have been denied, and racism, as a reason behind their death, has been overlooked and completely ignored.

A new INQUEST report on deaths in UK prisons has revealed that the deaths of black and mixed-race prisoners, including Muslims, are among the most brutal and prevalent.

The charity presented data on the deaths of people subjected to racism in British prisons between 2015-2022, reviewing the stories of 22 people who were exposed to this kind of discrimination, and how they died despite the fact that they could have been saved.

The report highlighted specifically the deaths of people of color and of mixed races, Asian peoples, Muslim peoples of the Middle East, and ethnicities from Eastern Europe, as well as white Irish people, white gypsies, and Irish travelers.

 

Most Violent and Prevalent'

INQUEST's recent report, Deaths of racialised people in prison 2015 – 2022: Challenging racism and discrimination, powerfully uncovers stories of more than 20 racialized people and how they died in British incarcerations when they could have been saved.

The charity warned that their deaths were among "the most violent and prevalent." The report's data shows that 2,220 people died in prison between January 2015 and December 2021, where Black and mixed-race people represented the highest number of prison deaths among racialized groups (136).

Not only did the report reveal data, but it also examined the "preventable and premature" deaths of 22 racialized people in prison, some of which were found to include the failure to respond to warning signs, inappropriate use of segregation, racial stereotyping, bullying, and victimization of racialized people.

Deborah Coles, executive director of INQUEST, said: "The decision to imprison the people featured in this report ended up being a death sentence. Imprisonment is ineffective in reducing crime and instead perpetuates harm and violence, with racialized and marginalized groups worst affected."

Blacks and ethnic minorities are overrepresented in the prison population, accounting for 28% of people being held in custody, but only 13% of the general population.

Black, Asian, and mixed-race young people collectively represent 53% of those detained, where Black young people alone account for 29% of the total population.

According to INQUEST data, 371 people died in British prisons in 2021, which represents the highest death toll in prisons in England and Wales, not to mention the Covid-19-related deaths.

 

Ignoring Systematic Issues

British Police racism has been a controversial issue for decades, and its discussion has extended to include the Prison Service. According to some research on race and crime and limited data from Home Office reports, direct and indirect racial segregation was evident in UK prisons.

Despite the difficulty of admitting that many current practices lead to discriminatory outcomes, some of the black and Muslim prisoners said they are being treated unfairly in many ways, such as racial stereotyping and biased allocation of jobs.

Despite the INQUEST report, what racialized people in prison are subjected to is not a new phenomenon, and it was central to the formation of INQUEST in 1981.

Featured in the report was the story of Muhammad Irfan Afzal; the 22-year-old man was a Pakistani prisoner held on remand at HMP Leeds and died on August 4, 2019, from a chest infection while he was physically healthy when he first entered the prison.

Afzal lost almost one-third of his body weight over 48 days to become vulnerable to infection.

Investigations showed failures to assess his health in the days before when he appeared unwell and also for mental ill health and learning disabilities.

"My brother suffered for the last few months of his life scared, starving, sick, and alone. That will haunt me every day until I die. No one has been held accountable for his death, and there has been no justice," his sister Ayesha said.

Neglecting the physical and mental health of people suffering from racism was an important theme of other stories identified in the report, like Osman Ali Hassan, Natasha Chin, Tyrone Givans and others.

Throughout the late 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, British prisons witnessed a series of deaths of Black men and boys who died after prison officers restrained them, often with their faces down in prone position.

Germain Alexander, a 58-year-old Black man, died in 1989 and was the first person to die of restraint in prison in UK history. After Alexander's death, many died in the same way, like Jay Austin, a 61-year-old Black Caribbean man who died in 1991, and Omasese Lumumba, a 32-year-old Black asylum seeker who had fled torture and persecution in Zaire in 1993 and was killed by prison officers in HMP Pentonville.

Dennis Stevens, Kenneth Severin, and Alton Manning died of asphyxia following restraint by prison officers in1995.

Severin allegedly died of rampant racism and violence in prisons in England and Wales, according to the report.

At that time, INQUEST was supporting the victims' families.

 

Postmortem Investigations Failed

Through analyzing never-before published data on ethnicity and deaths in prison, and after an examination of the relevant investigations, researchers said the report "evidences the role of institutional racism in the prison estate."

Deborah Coles "The failure of post-death investigations to examine the potential role of racism or discrimination in deaths renders racialized issues invisible. As a result, the opportunity to acknowledge and address racial injustices and inequalities is lost."

INQUEST's research exposes deeply concerning patterns affecting people from racialized groups, which contribute to premature and preventable deaths in prison. Despite the thematic issues these cases raise, post-death investigations and inquests are consistently silent on issues of racism and discrimination.

Inquest argued that more focused investigation, oversight, and action were needed to end the deaths of racialized people in prison, as well as a halt on prison building and resources to be redirected from the criminal justice system to welfare, health, housing, education, and social care.

INQUEST's report highlighted concerning patterns affecting people from racialized groups and led to premature and preventable deaths in British prisons. Despite the sensibility of these issues, post-death investigations always remain silent on issues of racism and discrimination.

INQUEST said more focused investigation is needed to end deaths of racialized people in prison, "as well as a halt on prison building and resources to be redirected from the criminal justice system to welfare, health, housing, education, and social care," the report said.

This comes, in fact, after the British government put plans in December for the biggest prison building program in more than 100 years.

The plan includes 18,000 new and 2,000 temporary places to be created, attaining almost 100,000 prisoners by 2026.

UK spending on prisons exceeded £18 billion by the end of 2020, where the overall cost per prisoner amounted to £42,670.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "All deaths in custody are investigated thoroughly and impartially by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, which operates independently of the Ministry of Justice.

"Racism and discrimination are not tolerated in our jails, and we take strong action to ensure the fair, equal and decent treatment of all prisoners and staff."